Yes, this office worker thinks that cooking by himself is cheaper than ordering takeout! First of all, let me explain this problem. I usually cook by myself, because the brunch canteen in my unit includes meals. Usually two dishes are cooked in the evening, a staple food and a plate of fruit, so that you can't eat leftovers. If office workers bring their own meals, besides saving money, they should also consider the nature of the ingredients. For example, there will be nitrite in vegetables overnight, so it is best to cook vegetables in the morning. Sharing my cooking experience with you can completely reduce the cost to a certain extent and do more and more interesting things with the saved money. Isn't it more fragrant?

First, how to buy cheap ingredients?

First of all, I usually buy food from these aspects: first, large supermarkets; Second, Pinduoduo; Third, community group buying; Fourth, the discounted vegetable shop at the entrance of the community. I used to go to a large supermarket once a week, such as Wal-Mart, and basically I could find low-priced vegetables of about one yuan every time. Moreover, I will keep a note of the lowest price of vegetables and meat in my mobile phone, so that when I go shopping, I can clearly know whether this price is the lowest price and whether it is cost-effective. It is necessary to know the price of ingredients so that you will not be deceived by the price of merchants because you are young.

It is also a good choice to buy more food at the store. However, because vegetables usually cost 5 kg 10 kg in Pinduoduo, leafy vegetables are not recommended. It will be more convenient to choose roots for a long time. If you like a vegetable or fruit very much, it is more cost-effective to buy it in Pinduoduo when you are sure you can finish it. I bought 10 kg pineapple in Pinduoduo several times before. In order to eat cheap pineapples, I even learned to cut beautiful fruit shops with a pineapple knife.

The word "community group buying" can be seen everywhere now, and there is a normal development trend now. Occasionally, there are cheap dishes worth buying. Because as I said before, as long as you know the price of a dish, you will know when the price will reach your expectation. ?

There should be a discount vegetable shop at the entrance of the community. You can talk to your aunts and grandmothers around you. The more famous vegetable shop is Aunt Qian. There are also many fruit and vegetable shops that have not learned the business model of Aunt Qian. All vegetables in the shop near my home are 50% off after 9: 30, but they are also very cheap. Learn to ask more uncles and aunts in the community, and they will know where to buy food and meat is more cost-effective. Where is the cheapest place to buy food around the community? It is right to follow your aunt. However, this kind of physical store generally adopts the way of stored value card. In order to avoid risks, it is not recommended to deposit too much money in the card at one time.

Second, about how to make cheap ingredients.

First of all, in the production of ingredients, you should probably have a grasp in your heart. Generally, beef and mutton are more expensive than chicken and duck, chicken is the cheapest, chicken wings are more expensive than chicken breast, frozen products are cheaper than chilled ones, and the freshly slaughtered ones are more expensive. All kinds of seasonal fish and shrimp will also be expensive. If the requirements for the ingredients themselves are very high, there is no way to make cheaper dishes than take-away. If you cook too much at a time, you can put it directly in the box and freeze it, or you can buy it and freeze the ingredients directly. It is also a good choice to pretreat the ingredients in advance.

For example, I usually make braised chicken with frozen chicken wings, chop the chicken pieces with bone chops, add potatoes and cook them together, and pour them on rice, which will taste good; In kung pao chicken, people usually use chicken breast. As long as it is marinated with starch in advance, it will be tender and not firewood at all. Pipa legs are a bit chicken-ribbed. Personally, I don't like chewing directly. The chicken pieces are too big. Generally, I will boneless and fry it with chicken leg meat. Last time I tried to roast the pipa leg of salted chicken powder with a rice cooker, it was also delicious. Duck meat, half duck and frozen duck legs in that supermarket are very cheap and should be done well, but I don't usually eat many ducks and can't give any advice.

Seafood and aquatic products, saury, blue and white fish, yellow croaker and Basha fish are all very cheap. If you stop fishing, you can find a lot of cheap frozen yellow croaker by searching for "Zhoushan yellow croaker" on Taobao. Just notice that some of them are small, maybe seven or eight can make a dish. This kind of frozen fish only needs to be thawed and marinated with salt, pepper, ginger and old wine 15 minutes. Steamed fish with soy sauce tastes similar to fresh fish. Friends who have a high demand for umami can also make it thick and make it into bean paste to braise in soy sauce, so that the original umami can hardly be eaten. Or get along well with skilled fishermen who are not in the air force, so that there will be endless river fish (laughs).

I also bought shellfish. There is also a way to preserve inexhaustible shellfish in the Japanese drama "Yesterday's Food": spit sand directly and freeze it, and the taste will still be the same when you eat it again. Note: Frozen Pipi shrimp is different from ordinary frozen fish, which is divided into ship freezing and cooked freezing. Generally, the meat quality will not shrink after cooking and freezing, but ship freezing is different. Be careful not to be cheated.

Finally, share a few low-priced convenient dishes recipes. First, cold black fungus. Put about 10g of dry auricularia auricula into an incubator, add a teaspoon of sugar and a box of warm water, and cover auricularia auricula 10 minute. It feels like magic. Blanch auricularia auricula with hot water, pour it, add three cloves of minced garlic, one tablespoon of soy sauce, one tablespoon of vinegar, one tablespoon of sesame oil, one tablespoon of sugar and a little chicken essence, and stir well.

Second, pumpkin red date soup. Peel and cut about 500g pumpkin, throw a handful of red dates and a spoonful of sugar into the rice cooker, fill a pot of water, and set the soup button regularly. When you get home from work, you will have cheap and delicious pumpkin and red jujube soup to drink.

Third, baked potato horns. Cut potatoes into hob pieces, sprinkle with coriander powder, allspice powder and cumin powder (whatever you want at home), add a spoonful of oil and bake in the oven at 220 degrees for 30 minutes. Potatoes are really cheap, and the electricity bill feels that this dish is very expensive.

Fourth, sweet and sour pork ribs, this dish will be a little more expensive, but it is quite simple to cook. The ribs were blanched to remove impurities. Normal frying is to add a small bowl of water according to the ratio of one wine, two sauces, three vinegar and four sugars. After the fire is boiled, it will be very delicious to cook for about 15 minutes.

Let's have some more pictures of other dishes I cooked myself.

Fried dumplings with iced flowers

Fish head tofu soup

Kumamon curry rice

Baked Sanhuang chicken with honey sauce

Italian tomato risotto

Bibimbap

Paella